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Synonyms

catch on

British  

verb

  1. to become popular or fashionable

  2. to grasp mentally; understand

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
catch on Idioms  

  1. Understand, as in Aunt Mary doesn't catch on to any jokes . The verb to catch alone was used with this meaning from Shakespeare's time, on being added in the late 1800s. Also see get it , def. 2.

  2. Become popular, as in This new dance is really beginning to catch on . [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Salt, who comes into the IPL after a quiet T20 World Cup, did take a sensational diving catch on the deep cover boundary in Sunrisers' 201-9.

From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026

Eventually even people around Clark Kent have to catch on: This guy might not walk around like he’s a superhero, but he is one.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 15, 2026

But the coins are starting to catch on among some crypto users as a way to park money and earn yields—a development that banks are determined to stamp out before it gets any bigger.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

“One goal I have for myself is that I can catch on a lot better when I’m not worried about school.”

From MarketWatch • Feb. 10, 2026

I was starting to catch on to this Grand Rapids talk, I remembered that a ax was a instrument.

From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.